Manjū Mania: Miso Manjū

Manjū is a Japanese sweet that is typically a soft, thin “shell” of steamed dough filled with sweet red-bean paste. The style and filling of manjū vary from place to place: for example, Takada Namagashi in Kanazawa has kabocha manjū, and Tatsurahama’s Takeuchi, the subject of today’s post, has miso manjū.

A box of miso manju. From the official Takeuchi website.

The miso manjū have miso paste mixed into the batter for the “shell” and are filled with shiro-an (白あん), white bean paste. The charm point of the miso manjū is that they are not too sweet and have a simple, refreshing flavor. The beans used to make the paste all come from Hokkaido. A single miso manjū is 120 yen and there are several sizes of omiyage boxes available.

Takeuchi’s miso manjū are, of course, the star of the show, but the shop sells a number of other delicious sweets. My favorite is the shinamondo (しなもんど), a small cinnamon-and-almond cake (120 yen a piece). Others include crepes (kureipu クレープ); koroukan (ころうかん), a coconut-and-walnut flavored sweet; joujoumochi (情ヶ餅), a bite-sized mochi filled with liquid sesame creme; and fukkura (ふっくら), little cakes filled with chocolate, custard, or strawberry creme (140 yen a piece).

All sweets are available in boxes for omiyage or individually (bara-bara, バラバラ).

Takeuchi’s main shop is in Tatsurahama (田鶴浜) near Tatsurahama Station (田鶴浜駅) on the 249 between Anamizu and Nanao. There are branch locations in Nanao, Wakura Onsen, Shika-machi, the Nishiyama Parking rest stops on the Noto Toll Road (both directions), and at the Kashima AL Plaza.